DEDICATION: CARY A. MITCHELL xix
This vision would inform and motivate Mitchell during the next
phase of his research career and would lead directly to a funded USDA
NIFA SCRI Project to Develop LED Lighting Technologies for Sus-
tainable Specialty-Crop Production (2010–2015). Ranked the #1 pro-
posal in the 2010 SCRI cycle, the research arising from this project
is today changing the paradigm for specialty supplemental lighting of
greenhouse crops for propagation, photoperiodic flowering, photomor-
phogenic development, and yield enhancement of greenhouse-grown
specialty crops. Mitchell has been Project Director and responsible for
overall conduct of the research and development program, which has
included seven projects at four universities and one corporation (Uni-
versity of Arizona, Michigan State University, The Orbital Technologies
Corporation, Rutgers University, and Purdue University).
Scholarly, technical, and practical outputs continue to emerge from
this highly productive multistate project. One important development
has included the use of innovative control systems for LED intracanopy
lighting towers that energize sequentially, tracking the vertical shoot
growth of high-wire tomatoes and thus reducing electrical energy con-
sumption during the growth cycle. A primary goal was to develop light-
ing systems that could provide affordable, year-round supplemental
lighting in a northern temperate climate. The study has not revealed dif-
ferences between intracanopy LEDversusoverhead HPS light sources;
both treatments consistently stimulated tomato yield (number and mass
of fruits) compared to controls. However, the electrical cost of LED-
supplied intracanopy lighting ranged from 25% to 50% that of HPS-
supplied overhead lighting. This outcome has helped prompt great
interest by growers in the use of LEDs, which draw significantly less
electrical power and energy than other lamps and are much longer lived.
Similarly, neither physicochemical nor organoleptic quality attributes
of high-wire tomato fruits differed significantly among these supple-
mental light treatments; all supplemental sources contributed posi-
tively to fruit quality attributes. Thus, the more energy-efficient LED
sources can be used confidently by growers without concern about neg-
ative effects of LEDs or intracanopy lighting.
TEACHING, TRAINING, AND MENTORING
Cary Mitchell’s impact on horticultural science and society extends
well beyond the research accomplishments delineated here. In fact, his
deepest influence has been on his students and postdoctoral fellows,
whose collective accomplishments are astonishing. Since 1974, Cary